From the Department of “Oh God, Why?” comes word of a Shadow of the Colossus movie. Hollywood has yet to get a game movie right, and there's no immediate reason to decide that the movie based on this Playstation 2 masterpiece will be any different. In fact, Justin Marks, the talented hero responsible for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li will be penning the script. May as well hunker down in the fallout shelter with your Civil Defence helmet pulled over your head. Feel free to sigh: that weary, defeated feeling that comes with most game movie announcements is no doubt familiar by now.
What's especially sad is that a Shadow of the Colossus movie truly stands to be a heartbreaking waste of the source material. It's a game that thrives on its sparse atmosphere and quiet but riveting heroics. Sadly, Hollywood requires by law for action movies to waste approximately five words per second, and God only knows how it classifies video game movies. I suspect the categorization involves a filing cabinet marked “FOR AUTISTICS.” The Shadow of the Colossus movie is likely going to be very loud and it might contain jokes about horse boners.
Admittedly, I am talking partially out of my bum. I have never played Shadow of the Colossus, but reading this dire news has driven me to bloody well start.
I once mentioned that the era of the Playstation 2 nearly passed me by: it was a very, very poor time for me, and I lacked the money to do anything much beyond keeping a roof over my head and peanut butter in a cupboard under said roof. I've been playing a very slow game of catch-up, and a friend helped me out by loaning me his copy of Shadow of the Colossus. I've been having trouble finding the time to make the disc connect with the Playstation 2's CD tray, but that's going to change.
Expect plenty of commentary about the game: Shadow of the Colossus is a favourite for many, and I think it will be fun to write a running retrospective on it (I've been doing something similar with Phantasy Star IV for the 1UP Retronauts Blog.
Away, Agro!
Related Links:
Super Secret Castle Discovered in Shadow of the Colossus
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Screen Test: Blood of Bahamut